There are several ways for participants to provide feedback about the success of a training course, from an informal “thumbs-up-thumbs-down” assessment initiated by the instructor in the early stages of the course, to having participants complete an evaluation form. This intent is to receive suggestions on how to improve course materials content and delivery. Handing out evaluation forms five minutes before the end of the course usually does not provide instructors and course designers with useful information about the effectiveness of the training, Participants are not likely to take the time to judge the value if the event thoroughly when it is time to go home.

Allow time for feedback throughout the session. Explain to participants why you are asking for feedback and what you intend to so with the information. Establish trust and respect (17) with participants to make it ‘safe’ for them to honestly tell you their opinion about the course. When feedback is provided during the session use it to adapt or adjust the course immediately. Often, participants come up with simple ways to improve content and delivery considerably. Remember to give out rewards (15) for good suggestions.

Most organizations have a standard evaluation form for training events; make sure you have read it. Forms are written to provide the sponsor with certain information. Are there also specific questions that you want answered? If necessary, ask the sponsor if modifications are possible of it you can add your own questions. Forms should mirror the sequence of events or topics during the training. Do not wait for the end of the course to remind people about the evaluation form. Consider a format that breaks up the training event into small components and ask participants to evaluate each component immediately after its completion. If you only have a standard evaluation form it should be completed immediately after the training; giving participants the option of mailing or faxing the form later usually results in a low number
of returns

Read each evaluation form completely, not just the components that interest you. You are important member of the team that develops, organizes and delivers training and should therefore be concerned about this success of the entire package, not just your performance as an instructor, Training follow-up (23) is a critical element of making training successful and effective.

Sponsors and supervisors should receive an evaluation summary. Comments should be summarized verbatim., including spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. If the summary will be read by upper management practice some editorial liberties to “reword” rude or inflammatory comments. However, the basic integrity and content of the evaluation must not be affected, Comments usually cover a wide spectrum of opinions. In the overall assessment of the training effectiveness, focus on the majority of the comments which will fall somewhere in the middle, while taking guidance from the extremes.